Local

Teachers vote to walkout again in June

TEACHERS will walk out of schools again this summer in a row over pay, pensions and working conditions.

Members of the National Union of Teachers have voted to strike in the week beginning Monday, June 23 if progress is not made in resolving the long-running dispute.

The resolution was backed by a large majority but was not passed unanimously at the NUT's annual conference in Brighton.

The latest strike plan follows a walkout by NUT members in March which saw some schools partially close in Worcestershire.

Teachers say their pay and pensions are being eroded and their workload is unsustainable.

They also argue that the situation is causing teachers to leave the profession in droves, storing up problems for the future.

The Department for Education has previously condemned the union's strike action.

A DfE spokesman said: "Further strike action will only disrupt parents' lives, hold back children's education and damage the reputation of the profession."

Anne Lemon, of the NUT's executive, told delegates the resolution did not exclude the NUT from taking strike action with other trade unions.

She said: "If we take strike action one day and maybe another one six months later and we don't make any real progress, we've got two choices.

"One choice is that we give up. The second choice is that we step up. Our members are for stepping up."

Exam timetables show at at least a dozen GCSE and A-level papers are due to be sat by students on the first two days of the week proposed in the NUT's resolution, with one advanced maths extension paper scheduled for the Wednesday of that week.

However, the NUT said it did not intend to disrupt exams and could make exemptions for members who were needed to supervise papers.

The NUT has said it would not rule out more than one day of strikes, and the resolution also left the door open for further action in the autumn.